575 Castro Street: It’s About Giving Young People Hope

575 Castro St. is an extremely moving short film by Jenni Olson, set in the Castro Camera Store where Harvey Milk lived and worked during the late 1970’s. The sensibility of 575 Castro St. hearkens back to the style of the dozens of Super 8 gay short films of the 1970s that passed through Harvey Milk’s hands to be processed and developed at the Castro Camera Store. The film is especially poignant in light of the recent suicide of Tyler Clementi, as well as the suicides of other young people. This film was shot with audio of Harvey Milk from a 1977 recording, outlining Harvey’s wishes in the event of his assassination.

575 Castro St. reveals the play of light and shadow upon the walls of the Castro Camera Store set for Gus Van Sant’s film Milk. The mundane shots are almost bereft of movement and sound. So quiet, so still. All the better to showcase the range of emotions evoked by Harvey Milk’s words on the soundtrack. He concludes his comments by telling listeners that the gay movement, or his efforts as a part of that movement, is mainly about giving young people hope. And that message remains an ever so important one today: “You gotta’ give them hope.”

Photos of the Day: Drop Dead Gorgeous!

Drop Dead Gorgeous! is a series of darkly humorous photographs by Daniela Edburg. For anyone who has been compelled to eat the whole box, or bag, or carton of their favorite snack or food, the photographs in this collection make bittersweet fun of our secret binges. Here, the consequences of indulgences are portrayed as tabloid or monster movie deaths. Edburg’s Drop Dead Gorgeous! both scoffs at and satisfies our private cravings.

Jeff Koons: The Infamous “Made In Heaven” Series

Twenty years ago, Jeff Koons made waves with his Made in Heaven series of paintings and sculptures when he first showed the work at the Venice Biennale. To coincide with the anniversary of the work’s 1990 premiere in Venice, the New York City gallery Luxembourg & Dayan is opening the exhibition Jeff Koons: Made in Heaven Paintings on October 6th, 2010.

The works from Made in Heaven disappeared from public view for many years. The original show was criticized severely in the press, and there was also the matter that Koons and IIona Staller, his wife and model for the work, split up in 1992, shortly after the birth of their son, Ludwig. Koons destroyed much of the work when Staller took Ludwig away to Italy, and the two have been embroiled in legal battles ever since.

In 1997, Koons twice postponed and ultimately canceled his show of this work at the Guggenheim. In those years, Koons was still very raw from the divorce and the child-custody issues. Nevertheless, he has always maintained that this is his most important body of work, the most radical, the most risky and the most sincere. Yet he was so conflicted about it because of what was unfolding in real life that he’d change his mind every week about presenting it.

Now it seems that Koons is finally making peace with the series. He gave his blessing to include several Made in Heaven paintings and sculptures in the Pop Life group show at the Tate Modern in London last year. And now he’s agreed to have the Luxembourg & Dayan show.

Additional pieces from the series, not suitable for presentation on this site, can be viewed here.